Chapter 463

Day 105 – Afternoon, Beastmen Country Gamerein Commonwealth, Royal Castle

The air was heavy. I had braced myself, knowing it would be, with so many circumstances overlapping to make it so. Even if I’d grown a little lax lately, all I needed to do was meet them with the courtesy befitting a princess of the kingdom. My mind was partially focused on the upcoming issues with the Theocracy already, hardly expecting anything more from the visit to Beastmen Country than a brief greeting, but this oppressive atmosphere…

Pres-san and the others surrounded Haruka-sama, lecturing him endlessly, persistently, relentlessly, managing to make him create a not indecent dress for me. A heavenly gown so fine that we probably wouldn’t be able to afford to purchase it even with the entire royal treasury, was given to me at the 『classmate discount』ending up worth barely half a day’s earnings… I was acknowledged as one of them, a fellow companion.

On paper, I had once been sent to attack the frontier, to face a Fake Dungeon, with my sole role to die there, a useless princess with nothing to boast of but her skill with the sword, nothing to rely on but martial prowess. When my father collapsed and the royal family was thrown into disarray, I resolved to become a human sacrifice to stop the war between the frontier and the kingdom, and on that day, I died… And that day, I was reborn.

Not as a princess, nor as a Sword Princess, nor as a general or soldier. Treated as simply a girl named Shariceres, with everyone speaking to me as a friend. Days like a dream, laughing and playing without rank or worldly cares, together with Lady Meriel and the others, precious companions. Days when I laughed from my heart, when I learned what happiness truly was. A precious treasure.

The shackles of a dying kingdom which didn’t allow any freedom, the sorrow of seeing the noble ideals of my ancestors crumble, fighting for the people with my life on the line, all while walking a narrow path towards death, all of it was destroyed… And with that the grief of today, the sorrow of tomorrow, were all killed. Everything was slain. And what remained was only happiness, left in the wake of a storm of slaughter. The Black Slayer.

That is why, this time, it’s my turn as a princess to protect everyone. Clad in the dress bought at the companion discount I’ll protect my comrades. This resolve is unchanged, but the air is so heavy.

Beastmen Country’s heartfelt hospitality, their unique reverence toward the strong, and their friendly disposition toward the royal house of Diorer. Without guile, straightforward and easy to read, that is the nature of Beastmen Country, and it is why their sincere welcome comes through so clearly… And precisely because it is so clear, the disdain for Haruka-sama stands out even more starkly.

Beastmen Country’s belief in supremacy of levels, their faith in status, the conviction, deeply etched by their history of persecution, that one’s own strength is the only way to protect oneself. And thus their disdain for the weak. They can be kind as protectors, but the moment they are treated as equals, that kindness turns to contempt.

We knew this might happen; everyone understood it. But even if we understand, we cannot forgive it. And because we know Haruka-sama, we can endure it even less. We know that the Beastmen are restraining themselves, treating him with scrupulous politeness, enduring treatment that for them is the height of humiliation. They see us as benefactors and are putting up with that humiliation for our sake.

And yet they do not know who their true benefactor is, nor how strong, and fragile, that benefactor truly is…

So the air is insanely heavy!

Lord Mellotosam understands, and is acting aloof… But he is angry, super angry. Although he understands the feelings of the Beastmen, and the effort they are making.

It’s Pres-san and the others who are truly frightening. The air around them is almost tingling. The great hall is filled with a killing intent on a level that the beastmen are growing scared. Their sociable smiles bloom like flowers, but the eyes do not smile! That’s so scary! When it comes to Haruka-sama, everyone changes at once. They know him well, thus they cannot forgive this, and I also came to know him, and thus cannot endure it. That feeling turns the atmosphere razor sharp, into the air of a battlefield.

I’ve learned it too, I’ve seen it. That cruel strength and tragic fragility. Haruka-sama, the one stronger, kinder, and nobler than anyone, is made to suffer, to feel pain, to be shattered more than anyone else. The price for the dreamlike rebirth of the frontier and the kingdom’s happiness had been paid by Haruka-sama. That price was paid by hellish agony and hardships. He collapsed many times, over and over again, covered in his own blood.

At first glance, the Boys look as if there is nothing wrong, but there is a challenge in their eyes – if you’re strong enough to look down on someone, then come at us, if you like strength, then we’ll show it to you. Without a shred of a thought about diplomacy or social grace, they radiate a pressure that only makes the already chaotic atmosphere of the great hall heavier still. The air is soaked with the presence of the wild beasts more dangerous than any beastman.

And the person at the center of it all pays no heed to the atmosphere, no interest in anyone’s feelings, not even the slightest concern for the contempt directed at him, he is simply displeased. That glare, as if regarding everything like dust and debris, is disrupting and confusing the room, in turn making the air ever heavier… He isn’t angry, he is looking down on them in annoyance. I’m familiar with that look.

With the long speeches and greetings being done, the gathering shifted into a standing banquet meant as both reception and introduction, but the palpable gravity of the air reached its limit, the compressed, stifling pressure so thick it felt as if it would be far more refreshing if someone would just start a brawl. 「Then just explode and exhaust」 the Nudist Girl was saying with a smile, but the look in her eyes screamed danger. Before I knew it, the girls took up a formation while chatting, unfolding into a crane’s-wing formation. The left wing, where I stood, is set to defend, the right wing is moving into an offensive line… Aah, I don’t want to understand, but I got it. This is an annihilation formation, one to leave no survivors, let no one escape.

「「…………」」

「Famed Tactician-dono. I am Vakuakku Gamerein, king of the Gamerein Commonwealth. It is our hope that your will approach our trading cooperation favourably, and… you have our gratitude for the rescue and aid you have given to our Country. We thank you.」

「Ah, those aid efforts were just something the four latecomers did on their own, so you should thank them, okay? I’ve got nothing to do with it. I mean, as a proud Fluffist I’m totally up for getting gratitude from the kemomimi girls as well as totally ready to be getting all nice and friendly with them, but I couldn’t care less for the country called Beastmen Country? Eeehm King Wakuwaku? Ueeh! Exciting Beastmen Countryland! But you’re a Middle-Aged Man, so there’s no demand for that? Actually, it’s nothing but Middle-Aged Men here…」

Oh no, we actually might have a battle here! On the Beastmen Country Gamerein side, warriors are glaring at Haruka-sama, who just called their king a Middle-Aged Man without the slightest deference, ready to leap at him, radiating intimidation and hostility as they squared their stances as they are surrounding him. And behind them, without them realizing, Pres-san and the others were moving in, completing a pincer formation with smiles on their lips and smileless eyes, pressing in to close the gap. …Wait, my position is in the second line, aimed right at King Vakuakku’s back!? The placement is precise.

No one could move; a wrong step or an ill-chosen word could shatter the fragile balance instantly. Even the great hall itself seemed to shrink in fear. And yet, in casual and cheerful steps free of any opening, Lord Mellotosam strode over to greet King Vakuakku, smoothly inserting himself into the conversation.

「I’ve wondered for a while now, why do you dislike the Beastmen Country so much? When it comes to beastmen themselves, you show what could be called no aversion at all, in fact, it seems more like you want to meet them, but whenever the topic turns to Beastmen Country itself, you seem to get in a bad mood, and I kinda can’t figure out why? From the kingdom’s perspective, we’ve been comrades, cooperating to found our nations and sealing away the monsters of the frontier together. Though they’ve suffered from the church’s beastman discrimination and came to hate humans, beastmen are, at their core, open-hearted, honest, brave, and proud. I was hoping you’d work with them, even had something I wanted to ask you… but you seem angry, so it’s sort of hard to bring up in this mood, you know?」

「Ahh~ Well, it’s kind of pissing me off? Like, not actually angry for now, just annoyed? But if I actually got involved, that mild annoyance could catch fire, burn hotter, spread, and maybe burn, I dunno… the Beast King?」

「「「Don’t burn him! You can’t just burn the Beast King over some weird, random bad mood!」」」

「Th-this is outrageous… the height of insolence! To insult our king to his face, you’ve got some nerve!」 「I’ve had enough! I challenge you to a duel!」 「「「Hit him! Stab him! Kill him! Break him! Smash him, smash him to pieces!!!」」」

The chieftains of the Beastmen Country, inflamed and enraged, surged forward, surrounding Haruka-sama. Without realizing it, they allowed themselves to be perfectly encircled; if they tried to press in further, they would be crushed from behind by the enclosing force. The group was crowding closer, but that was the trap! Victory was certain… except, no, we mustn’t win here! This has to be stopped!

「What is it you are being so irritated about all this time? This is the first time you’ve met them, right? Yet it seems to me you’ve been angry for a long time, not so much at the Beastmen Country itself, but whenever its politics or governance come up? Embarrassing and shameful as it is to admit, our own kingdom was in a far more disgraceful state of chaos, I’d say? So how come you never seemed angry with the frontier or the kingdom but are so consistently angry about the Beastmen Country Gamerein, united in purpose as they are? If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear it, the reason why you, who saved our kingdom, so completely hold the Beastmen Country Gamerein in contempt?」

「This is the castle, you know, that’s why it pisses me off. Ahh, I just want to burn it down! I want to light the fuse of my annoyance! I even gave the Geeks explosives, and they still haven’t blown it up, you know? And they’re late! If they were off making friends with kemomimi girls, then I’ll just blow them up instead, along with the castle.」

Forget pouring oil on a fire, this is heating the oil until it is boiling, stirring it well, and then dumping water into it. He doesn’t care for a scandal, he wants to blow the place up entirely. But no matter how much the leaders of the Beastmen Country might lose themselves in anger, they would never dare attack Lord Mellotosam. When the Beastmen Country was invaded under the pretense of a holy crusade by the alliance led by the church, it was Lord Mellotosam, then commander of the First Division, who led the royal army, alongside the previous Sword Princess, Murimur-sama, commanding the Royal Guard Division. To the Beastmen Country, they are as the king of the kingdom himself, great benefactors, absolute objects of awe, known from fighting side-by-side in swift assaults and mobile warfare, earning the title The Kingdom’s Sword.

And that’s why I thought it’d be fine… But he’s provoking them… Really provoking them!

「Beast King-sama, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I apologize for my companion’s rudeness, and also for cutting in. So, Haruka-kun, why are you angry at the castle? You weren’t angry at all when you saw the Royal Palace, even though it’s bigger and more luxurious than this, right? Why’s that?」

Pres-san cut in. And with that, the Beastmen side froze, unable to do a thing. No one was able to do a thing about that greeting, it caught them completely off guard. It was polite intimidation, a smiling threat that said, I could have killed you just now. The one that shouldn’t be angered the most right now is Pres-san, and she’s quite angry.

「Ahh, the kingdom is so unbelievably stupid that I couldn’t even be bothered to get angry. You can make fun of a castle for being stupid, sure, but it doesn’t make you mad, right?」

「What do you mean?」

That meant he had acknowledged the sheer, pointless stubbornness of our royal family. For the first time in the history of the royal house, someone had praised us for being idiots, commended us for being foolish… And that recognition was why the royal family had been saved, why my father and uncle had been saved.

「Do you remember the first town you saw after leaving the Evil Forest? Yeah, that nameless, shabby little town?」

「Yeah. Just a wall and a lord’s manor. It’s still like that now.」

Oh no, the God of War is sulking? Sitting with his knees drawn up and looking teary-eyed. You shouldn’t have made it known you understood what he meant. It’ll deal a mortal blow to the frontier lord!

「Right, right, that pathetic excuse for a castle they called the frontier’s fortress was actually facing the Evil Forest, you know? Pretty much surrounded on almost all sides by it, it stood somehow isolated out on the plains? Isn’t that idiotic? The supreme commander living right on the front line? And do you remember where the Royal Palace is?」

「Yeah, I get it. The royal capital is right before the border canal, right at the gateway to the kingdom.」

We’d been mocked and ridiculed by other countries for years, called fools for placing the Royal Palace in the most vulnerable location. But that palace was the first king’s fortress on the front line, where he had declared he would defend the kingdom. That was our royal residence, the pride of a foolish royal family and foolish nobility, dangerous, pointless, but never to be abandoned, because behind it lay the people of the kingdom. That was where I had been born and raised.

That foolish, idiotic ideal passed down from the first king had been understood, recognized. And because it had been recognized, we were saved. Because the Royal Palace stood on that front line. And so…

「The strongest clan becomes kings, and the strongest become nobles and lead the beastmen, yeah, and then they go hide away in the farthest back like a bunch of cowardly Middle-Aged Men? Yeah, I seriously couldn’t care less about them? I’m here to get permission to trade in soy sauce and miso, not to attend a macho beastman Middle-Aged Man gathering? And seriously, I’ve come all the way to the beastmen’s country and I’ve met nothing but Middle-Aged Men! Of course I’m pissed! If some high school boy was standing here grinning at this sight, it’d mean he had some seriously messed-up tastes! Come on, I don’t want to be involved with this at all?」

Deep in the forests of Beastmen Country stands the rock fortress of Castle Gamerein. An impregnable, unyielding stronghold, but behind it lies nothing, and it sits far from the front lines. If the royal castle falls, the nation is finished, if the army’s rearguard vanishes, the army can no longer fight. And so, by conventional theory, the royal castle’s position in the deepest interior is correct… Yet such a castle does not hold back the enemy, nor does it protect the people.

「…For the sake of repaying the great debt we owe the royal house of Diorer, I will accept any insult or scorn. I will swallow any shame, any humiliation. …But if you mock the will and resolve passed down from our ancestors, then as king, I cannot yield. If I yield here, I cannot lead the nation. A king must have a line that cannot be crossed. Boy, you have crossed that line. You have trampled upon the domain of Beastmen Country’s pride… Lord Mellotosam, forgive me. When this is done, take my head back with you to King Diorer, and convey my apology. I challenge you to a duel!」

He is super pissed. Yup, I’d figured as much? Because I’d managed to hold myself back… but the beastmen can’t pull out, can they? If he said that line has been crossed, then their anger is justified. But still, while we’ve been holding back, he didn’t just cross the line but actually went for a duel? At this moment, we could crush them instantly by closing the encirclement, and killing every last one of them in seconds. Even if he wasn’t obliging us with such great favor as letting us have his head, we could just take it right now.

「As a member of the royal house, I, Shariceres di Diorer, shall accept that duel as the representative of King Diorer. If you would raise your blade against our guest and benefactor, then the royal house of Diorer, in the name of our family’s honor, will go to any battlefield. Upon this royal sword Diorer entrusted to me by the king.」

When I was granted the reborn royal sword Diorer, our entire family swore an oath upon it.

What had been entrusted to the royal house from our progenitor and passed down was the kingdom itself, this sword, and, it was said, the throne that all the former nobles had together presented. All of it had crumbled and begun to rot away, the kingdom plunged into chaos, the royal house dragged down with the nobility it was meant to lead, the nation that should have protected the frontier instead tormenting it, driving itself to ruin and to the brink of the abyss. The king who sat upon the worn, breaking throne was powerless, and the royal sword Diorer, the pitiful symbol of the royal house, was so battered it seemed it would crumble at a touch, almost like the kingdom itself…

And then, that sword, the symbol of the kingdom, was restored to brilliance, returned to us in a divine and resplendent form, alongside a kingdom brimming with a new future… and the throne as well, now splendid, beautiful, and equipped with a massage function.

We of Diorer swore to wield the royal sword Diorer for the sake of Haruka-sama, just as our progenitor once swore for the sake of the War Goddess, a vow of absolute loyalty, not as a royal house, but as a family.

In gratitude for the greatest favor we had received, and even more because we believed in that resolve. The inscription upon the scabbard of this sword bears two lines: on the front, 『Royal house for the people』 on the back,『We dedicate this sword to the one we believe in』 It is the vow said to be the eternal regret of the our progenitor, a pledge never fulfilled, the sorrowful covenant of having survived and been entrusted with that burden.

Once, there was the War Goddess, said to have destroyed the demons of the continent. Believing Haruka-sama to be her successor, we swore a new oath. The vow that our family could never fulfill, to protect the War Goddess, has been passed down anew. This reborn sword is Haruka-sama’s sword. We will be the blade that guards Haruka-sama! And, of course, the reborn massage throne is a splendid piece as well.